When famous psychic Perspicacious Peg predicts that someone will drown at the Belief and Beyond conference in the seaside town of Torquay, twenty-six-year-old amateur sleuth Emily Castles is recruited to investigate.

The potential victim of this “future crime” is celebrated magician Edmund Zenon. He provokes outrage and excitement by offering £50,000 to anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal, then announces he will stage a daring walking-on-water stunt the same weekend.

Potential suspects include local fortune-teller Madame Nova; kindly Bobby Blue Suit and his three psychic dachshunds; grieving parents Sarah and Tim Taylor; and religious cult members Hilary, Trina, and the Colonel.

Edmund Zenon doesn’t believe he’s in danger. If he’s right, Emily will enjoy a weekend of séances and positivity circles, puzzling over nothing more troubling than the fish supper menu at the Poisson d’Avril restaurant.

But if he’s wrong, Emily will have to use good old-fashioned detective skills to solve the case. Fortunately Emily's best friend, eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel, is on hand to assist.

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the second entry in Smith’s cozy series (after Invitation to Die), Emily Castles leaves her part-time job in London to travel to the seaside town of Torquay to be a “future crimes investigator.” Emily’s neighbor, philosophy professor Dr. Muriel, persuades her to attend the Belief and Beyond conference to help prevent a premonition that someone will drown at the conference. The suspected victim, magician Edmund Zenon, has offered £50,000 to anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal. Emily encounters a wide variety of believers and nonbelievers during her investigation, including an aging actress-turned-fortune-teller, three psychic dachshunds, and several religious fanatics. When people start dying and Emily herself is attacked, she must use earthly detective skills to find the killer. VERDICT Don’t expect a fast-paced plot here. Rather, the book’s strong points are its atmospheric setting and the well-developed characters. Despite the contemporary setting, Smith’s mystery has the feel of an earlier time period. Recommended for those who like clean mysteries with a touch of humor, especially fans of Jill Churchill, Joan Hess, Leslie Meier, or Carolyn Hart.

From Kirkus Reviews

When a psychic foresees death at a seaside convention, even the most cynical learn that they’d better pay attention. Bored with her office job in London, Emily Castles happily accepts an all-expenses-paid trip to the resort town of Torquay, the site of Belief and Beyond, a convention for paranormal research. Her friends at the Royal Society for the Exploration of Science and Culture are also willing to pay for her services as a future-crimes investigator, particularly since Emily’s neighbor, Perspicacious Peg, has had premonitions that someone will drown at the convention. The highlight of Belief and Beyond is notable magician Edmund Zenon’s offer of £50,000 to anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal. Emily is as skeptical as Zenon himself that anyone will collect the money, especially after she meets some of the conventioneers: the leader of an obscure religious cult, a couple who’ve brought along the psychic who’s communicating with their dead son, and a fortuneteller who owns a costume store to help with dry spells in her vocation. The foreboding visions, after much arch humor at the expense of the daffy characters’ antics, finally start to come true—and then don’t stop.

Emily (Invitation to Die, 2013, etc.) returns in an equal opportunity satire of those who believe in the paranormal and those who exploit the believers. It’s an enjoyable tale with a leisurely buildup, though readers in search of a fast moving mystery will be fidgeting long before the first murder.

Top customer reviews

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As Courtney as that sounds, I made the mistake of starting this very excellent book just before bed time. Big mistake! I tossed and turned and finally got up to finish the book. I not only had to know who done it, I had to spend more time with all the delightful characters Helen Smith had brought together. I'm tired now, but not sorry. Read this, but don't start it just before bedtime!Marie

I normally read an entirely different genre; action, spy, heavy drama, etc. However I am so intrigued by Helen Smith's writing style, plot twists, and the character of Emily Castles, that I regularly rotate her books through my reading queue. These are superbly written and engrossing. Don't skip any pages or explanations in the text because you will surely miss clues!!

Emily travels to Torquay on the chance a murder may occur. According to psychics someone is going to drown. With help from Dr. Muriel and others in the group Emily Castles tries to solve the crime even before it occurs. Another masterpiece from Helen Smith.

It's taking me some time to get into this one, even immersion reading didn't help. The book is rather weird and seems disconnected in the beginning. I still don't see why Emily was chosen to be the "future crimes investigator". This book didn't capture my attention until it was about two-thirds complete. The characters were a mish-mash of all sorts of folks that actually made this story work in an odd way; however I think the introduction and purpose of The Colonel, Hilary, and Trina characters could have been better. One had to figure out it the religion versus psychic/spiritualism rivalry. The character Peg (a psychic) was by far my favorite. She is the epitome of narcissistic; reminds me of that co-worker that you want to push down a flight of stairs every time you have to discuss anything with them. Finally the audible narrator did an excellent job with the characters, so that helped loads, so if you can deal with a little disconnect here and there then this is not a terrible bad book. I probably won't buy any of the rest of the series though for that reason.